TAKA, Atsugi

厚木 たか (b. 3 March 1907 - 19 May 1998)

b. Matsue OKADA in Gunma Prefecture

• graduate of Japan Women's University
• proletarian (communist) documentary filmmaker
• participated in the Proletarian Film League of Japan (日本プロレタリア映画同盟), aka Prokino
• worked outside of the studio system
• changed her name to Atsugi TAKA in order to hide her identity from the Japanese police who wanted to silence her political opinions
• keenly interested in western Film Theory
• translated Paul Rotha's Documentary Film (1952) into Japanese

Secondary Sources:

• Luftus, Ronald. Depicting Women: The Memoirs and Documentary Films of Atsugi Taka. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, Issue 7, March 2002.
• Mizoguchi, Akiko. The “Japanese Women Filmmakers” Conference". Documentary Box (U of Colorado, 2000).
• Nornes, Mark Abe. Pôru Rûta/Paul Rotha and the politics of translation. 1 July 1999.
• Taylor-Jones, Kate E. Rising Sun, Divided Land: Japanese and South Korean Filmmakers. London: Wallflower Press, 2013.